Friday, July 31, 2009

The horror stories that I have read all confirm that you are not completely out of the woods for a good three weeks. Until that time, all of the toys will remained quarantined; carpets, beds and furniture will be vacuumed nightly; sheets will be washed daily.

I took the kids in on Thursday morning to get doctor approval for them to return to school. I'm really not 100% sure the doctor didn't just give us clearance because I slipped her the extra cash to write that note was pleading for her to make them just go away. Regardless, they are clear and I have not had to pick bugs for the past 24 hours.

This has by far been the worst thing I have had to deal with since becoming a parent. Seriously, give me the labor with no drugs again, just don't make me have to dig bugs out of my kid's hair for hours on end. (And yes, I not so selfish to not recognize that if THIS is the worst I've had to deal with, then I'm actually pretty blessed. I have two amazing healthy smart kids, so things are really good.)

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Mooka is the only one who still has them and for a kid who has very little hair, it still takes 2.5 hours to comb through each strand. And speaking of combs, they don't work on fine kid hair. That would be 2.5 hours picking them out with my finger nails.

Seriously, I would welcome underwear full of poo or a lap of vomit over this experience.

We went to the doctor yesterday. She just looked at me compassionately and said, sometimes they can be hard to get rid of. I was hoping for her to pull out a laser gun and zap the kid's head, but she just said, the prescription is the same as what you can buy over the shelf. You'll just have to go hair by hair and pick them out.

really.

REALLY.

So, I went and got Baby Bear's head shaved. I really like the super short hair cut look on guys and it's summer, so no harm.

I would be lying if I said I didn't think about plopping the girl up in the chair next to him and giving her a Sinead 'do.

After 2.5 hours, I felt accomplished and confident that we would get up today, able to go back to the doc and get the all clear.

7 a.m. - bug check.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

WHERE DO THEY KEEP COMING FROM?!??!?!?!

I found a tip on the internet today that said to put fresh rosemary in the pillow cases and sleep on it. We'll be doing that later (AFTER THE PILLOWS AND PILLOW CASES FINISH WASHING).

Monday, July 27, 2009

You know how you come back to work on Monday and the first thing someone says to you is, “How was your weekend?”

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you were completely honest?

Imagine the look on people’s faces if I decided to indulge them with the details of exactly how my weekend went.

Friday night, Mooka broke out in hives for no real good reason. She was also doing the itchy dance all over the house. By Saturday afternoon, she was in full on hysterics over the itchies, so I did the head inspection.

(Do you see where this is going?)

That’s right.

Lice.

Disgusting, repulsive, creepy crawly lice. GROSS!

Upon further inspection, all four of us had it.Sorry if you just threw up in your mouth, cause I did.

If you’ve ever had your car broken in to and you experience that violated feeling, well, that’s how it feels to get lice.

The next three hours of my life were spent treating, washing, combing, plucking, rinsing three heads.

This was followed by twenty loads of laundry over the next 48 hours.

My Saturday night was supposed to be spent at a friend’s birthday party (again, how is THAT for an excuse on why I didn’t show up).

Finally, at 9 o’clock at night I made the trip back to the store to get more supplies to do my hair.

I must have used too much of the goo on my hair, because after the wash and rinse step, my hair looked like I had attempted to give myself a Jheri Curl treatment but with too much Jheri and without the curl. I normally use “ethnic” hair products on my hair and have no issues with being over conditioned (another story for another day). This stuff made me an oily mess.

The next morning when I got up to go to church, I noticed my hair still rivaled an Exxon spill. Fortunately for me, it was my week to play in the church band. I tried to channel my inner-artist-formally-known-as-prince-self and do something with it, but just ended up looking like a hot mess. No one said anything about it (but if you’re reading now and you did notice, thanks for not asking.)

The house, cars, furniture, walls, kids have all been fumigated, but I still feel completely dirty.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

One regret I have from each of the kid's first year is not capturing the same pose month after month to document how fast they were growing. I had great intentions, but just didn't quite get it together. So when my Chicago friend hinted that she wanted this simple but wonderful gift, I was excited to order them.

The concept is easy: put baby in onesie, place sticker on baby, take picture, repeat once a month. AMAZING! The best thing about this idea, is it won't get tossed out or become obsolete after the first three months.

If you're giving it as a gift, buy the stickers and a variety of sized white onesies, voila! You're done. I highly recommend this idea for anyone who has to buy a baby gift. Especially after trying to navigate the baby shower registry in the store the night before the shower - that was a disaster.

Before we headed out for the shower, I was on a mad dash to find a coloring book. Story telling tangent - Jenny (from over here) had this great idea at her baby shower. All of the guests colored sheets from the Charlie Harper coloring book while they were waiting for the actual shower to begin. I thought it was a fantastic idea and tried to replicate for this weekend's shower. However, my attempt was a complete failure that left me scrambling hours before the big event trying to find something that would work. Note to self, don't buy something off of the interwebs and count on having it when you need it.

Back to the other story...so when we drove up to the store, there was this guy walking down the street carrying a giant yellow boa constrictor. Like any responsible mom would do, I drove up and asked if he would take a picture with my kid. I expected her to just stand off to the side, but no, she asked if she could hold it!

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Again last night, rather than unpack, I decided it would be fun to hang out in my freshly painted furniture outside and read a book.

While I was reading, I noticed the little things kept running back into the woods and returning with sticks. After about 5 trips, they went in and got some marshmallows. They set up their chairs and had a pretend camp fire. It was so cute.

I also took some time to take outside shots of the new house.

To finish it off, I took a shot of Mooka's newest pose. She LOVES to do this when she is getting in trouble. And yes, I've already caught myself saying 'Don't do that or your eyes will stay that way.' Completely unsuccessful.

Monday, July 13, 2009

This weekend I found plenty of ways to avoid unpacking. At this point, everyone has enough underwear for seven days straight and a decent rotation of clothing for during the week, so I figure we are in good shape.

Our basement is a walk-out with a very old door. An old door with a big window that would allow you to see straight in and given my families love for "being free" it just wasn't working for me. I bought this stuff at Home Depot and loved it. Typically when I start a project, I want immediate results. The beauty of this stuff is that it took about 20 minutes from start to finish to complete.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

The second way I avoided unpacking was by re-painting my outdoor furniture. This, however, was not a project that I loved. It took entirely too long and who knew it would take 7 cans of spray paint to complete. I had purchased three cans thinking that would be more than enough, so the project was not completed in one sitting. AND it hurt my finger (queue violins) to have to spray that much paint. AND, those spray can nozzle holder things that they sell are junk. AND, truth be told, I probably could use a couple more cans, but have completely lost interest in this project.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Even with my lack of commitment to the project, I think it looks 100 times better. I still want to get an outdoor rug and paint the concrete, but it will take me a couple weeks to make nice with the furniture.

My next project is to purify the little swamp area next to my outdoor room. Also, please note, if you have kids, having a garden pond is the worst.idea.ever. Mine are using it as a carnival game in which they toss peaches from the tree into it to see who can make the biggest splash.

For as long as I can remember, I have been obsessed with the idea of becoming a hair stylist. The fantasy of tossing the 9-5 lifestyle to attend the Aveda Institute in Minneapolis will forever be my dream.

When I was younger, all of my Barbies had custom cuts. My sister was my life size doll to practice my skills. I even convinced my mom and BFF to let me work my magic on there heads.

A couple of weeks ago, I discovered Baby Bear had gotten ahold of his sister's My Little Ponies and gave them a couple of buzz cuts, evidence that he would share my obsession for providing the world with perfect coiffes.

Then on Friday, I was greeted by Vidal Sassoon when I got to day care.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

See, I took a picture of them last night in their giant over-sized bathroom.

Seriously, their bathroom is like a little condo. It's crazy.

The move was long and painful, but we have all of our junk out of the old house.

I went out Monday, bought a book on organizing and have enlisted the help of a friend to sort through it all.

Bottom line, we have WAY too much stuff. I've been able to get my living room and dining room set up. I haven't put anything on the walls, no knick-knacks on the tables and you know what, I love it! I'm definitely moving towards the minimalist approach. So if you need any home decor, come by my place every Wednesday morning as it will be sitting out for the trash guys to take away.

As I get rooms done, I will post pictures, but don't expect anything anytime soon :)

Thank you to all of you (and your spouses) who spent countless hours helping with the process. Thank you to my parents who helped watch the crazies children while I attempted to work, get things packed, and tend to life while A. was out of town.